Chapter 6

ETHICS AND
PROFESSIONALISM OF
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
 After completing, Students will be able to:
Distinguish the link between ethics and technology.
Understand general, professional and leadership
ethical questions.
Explain what digital privacy is, its components and
why it is important.
know the importance of accountability and trust in
emerging technologies.
Identify the threats and challenges we face in
developing and utilizing emerging technologies.
 Technology and ethics

Technology can serve to promote or restrict human rights.

The Information Society should foster the use of emerging
technologies in such a way as to maximize the benefits that
they provide while minimizing the harms.
In many cases, this promotion may be less a matter of
technological control than of oversight: establishing the
proper legal or regulatory system to ensure that technology
capable of abuse is not in fact abused and that the benefits
of technology are shared among all.
Ethics is particularly important for the accountancy
profession, with a code for professional ethics based on five
basic principles – integrity, objectivity, competence and due
care, confidentiality, and professional behavior.
 New ethical questions

The increasing use of big data, algorithmic decision-making, and

artificial intelligence can enable more consistent, evidence-based

and accurate judgments or decisions, often more quickly and

efficiently.
However, these strengths can potentially have a darker side
too, throwing up questions around the ethical use of these
fairly new technologies.
For example, outputs can be based on biased data, which could
lead to discriminatory outcomes.
Closely linked to discrimination is personalization, and the
impact of tailoring decisions very specifically to individuals,
based on preferences, activities and other features.
While this can be beneficial for many, others can lose out, and
 New ethical questions…
General ethical principles
1. Contribute to society and to human well-being,
acknowledging that all people are stakeholders in
computing.
2. Avoid harm.
3. Be honest and trustworthy.
4. Be fair and take action not to discriminate
5. Respect the work required to produce new ideas,
inventions, creative works, and computing artifacts.
6. Respect privacy.
7. Honor confidentiality
 New ethical questions…

Professional responsibilities
1. Strive to achieve high quality in both the processes and
products of professional work.
2. Maintain high standards of professional competence, conduct,
and ethical practice.
3. Know and respect existing rules pertaining to professional
work.
4. Accept and provide appropriate professional review.
5. Give comprehensive and thorough evaluations of computer
systems and their impacts, including analysis of possible risks.
6. Perform work only in areas of competence.
7. Foster public awareness and understanding of computing,
related technologies, and their consequences.
 New ethical questions…

Professional responsibilities….
8. Access computing and communication resources only
when authorized or when compelled by the public good.
9. Design and implement systems that are robustly and
usably secure.
Professional leadership principles
1. Ensure that the public good is the central concern during
all professional computing work.
2. Articulate, encourage acceptance of and evaluate
fulfillment of social responsibilities by members of the
organization or group.
3. Manage personnel and resources to enhance the quality
of working life.
 New ethical questions…

Professional leadership principles

4. Articulate, apply, and support policies and processes that
reflect the principles of the Code.
5. Create opportunities for members of the organization or
group to grow as professionals.
6. Use care when modifying or retiring systems. Interface
changes, the removal of features, and even software
updates have an impact on the productivity of users and
the quality of their work.
7. Recognize and take special care of systems that become
integrated into the infrastructure of society.
 Digital privacy

Digital Privacy is the protection of personally identifiable or

business identifiable information that is collected from
respondents through information collection activities or
from other sources.
It is a collective definition that encompasses three sub-
related categories; information privacy, communication
privacy, and individual privacy.
 It is often used in contexts that promote advocacy on
behalf of individual and consumer privacy rights in digital
spheres, and is typically used in opposition to the business
practices of many e-marketers/businesses/companies to
collect and use such information and data.
 Digital privacy…
Information Privacy
In the context of digital privacy, information privacy is the
notion that individuals should have the freedom, or right, to
determine how their digital information, mainly that
pertaining to personally identifiable information, is collected
and used.
Every country has various laws that dictate how information
may be collected and used by companies.
Some of those laws are written to give agency to the preferences
of individuals/consumers in how their data is used.
For example, some legislation, or lack of, allows companies to
self-regulate their collection and dissemination practices of
consumer information.
 Digital privacy…
Communication Privacy
In the context of digital privacy, communication privacy is
the notion that individuals should have the freedom, or
right, to communicate information digitally with the
expectation that their communications are secure; meaning
that messages and communications will only be accessible
to the sender's original intended recipient.
However, communications can be intercepted or delivered
to other recipients without the sender's knowledge, in a
multitude of ways.
Communications can be intercepted directly through
various hacking methods.
 Digital privacy…
Communication Privacy
Communications can also be delivered to recipients
unbeknownst to the sender due to false assumptions made
regarding the platform or medium which was used to send
information.
An example of this is a failure to read a company's privacy
policy regarding communications on their platform could
lead one to assume their communication is protected when
it is in fact not.
Additionally, companies frequently have been known to lack
transparency in how they use information, this can be both
intentional and unintentional.
 Digital privacy…
Individual Privacy
In the context of digital privacy, individual privacy is the
notion that individuals have a right to exist freely on the
internet, in that they can choose what types of information
they are exposed to, and more importantly that unwanted
information should not interrupt them.
 An example of a digital breach of individual privacy would
be an internet user receiving unwanted ads and emails/
spam, or a computer virus that forces the user to take
actions they otherwise wouldn't.
In such cases the individual, during that moment, doesn't
exist digitally without interruption from unwanted information;
thus, their individual privacy has been infringed upon.
 Digital privacy…

Some digital privacy principles

Data Minimization: collect the minimal amount of
information necessary from individuals and businesses
consistent with the Department’s mission and legal
requirements.
Transparency: Notice covering the purpose of the collection
and use of identifiable information will be provided in a
clear manner. Information collected will not be used for any
other purpose unless authorized or mandated by law.
Accuracy: Information collected will be maintained in a
sufficiently accurate, timely, and complete manner to
ensure that the interests of the individuals and businesses
are protected.
 Digital privacy…
Some digital privacy principles…
Security: Adequate physical and IT security measures will
be implemented to ensure that the collection, use, and
maintenance of identifiable information are properly
safeguarded and the information is promptly destroyed in
accordance with approved records control schedules.
 Accountability and trust

When emerging technology creates far-reaching and rapid

change, it can also bring new risks.
Often legal and regulatory frameworks haven’t kept pace
with digital transformation, and organizations are seeking
guidance.
This challenge is exacerbated by the speed at which
technological change is occurring and the breadth of its
adoption – which is introducing new risks that demand new
responses.
Emerging technologies can provide improved accuracy,
better quality and cost efficiencies for businesses in every
sector.
 Accountability and trust

They can enhance trust in the organization’s operations and

financial processes, which is crucial for sustainable success.
But this can produce a paradox: the very solutions that can
be used to better manage risk, increase transparency and
build confidence are often themselves the source of new
risks, which may go unnoticed.
There’s a danger that the use of technology will degrade
people’s willingness to judge and intervene because they
feel that they are less personally connected to consumers
and consumer outcomes – the logic of the machine has
taken over from individual responsibility.
 Treats and challenges

1. Ethical and regulatory challenges

With Technology moving at a fast pace it is always been a
challenge for Security.
As security professionals, we need to keep pace with ever-
changing technology and be aware of the AI, IoT, Big Data,
Machine Learning, etc.
With Growing needs Cyber & Data Security is getting
prominence that requires security practitioners to focus on the
business need for securing data, understanding security and risk
from a business perspective by extensively interacting with the
business community in understanding their requirements or
what they want.
 Treats and challenges…
Ethical and regulatory challenges…
Emerging technologies, already impacting how we live and work.
They're also changing how we approach, plan, and integrate
security operations.
Certainly, we are living in an era where innovation, agility, and
imagination are all essential in order to keep pace with the
exponential technological transformation taking place.
For security, both physical and cyber, the equation is the same
catalyzing many new potential applications for emerging
technologies.
 Treats and challenges…
Emerging technologies are making an impact include:
1. Counter-terrorism and law enforcement informatics via
predictive analytics and artificial intelligence.
2. Real-time horizon scanning and data mining for threats
and information sharing
3. Automated cyber-security and information assurance
4. Enhanced Surveillance (chemical and bio-detection
sensors, cameras, drones, facial recognition, license
plate readers)
5. Simulation and augmented reality technologies for
training and modeling
6. Safety and security equipment (including bullet and
bomb proof) made with lighter and stronger materials
 Treats and challenges…
Emerging technologies are making an impact include:
7. Advanced forensics enabled by enhanced computing
capabilities (including future quantum computing)
8. Situational awareness capabilities via GPS for disaster
response and crisis response scenarios
9. Biometrics: assured identity security screening solutions by
bio-signature: (every aspect of your physiology can be used
as a bio-signature. Measure unique heart/pulse rates,
electrocardiogram sensor, blood oximetry, skin
temperature)
10. Robotic Policing (already happening in Dubai!)
 Treats and challenges…
Challenges in using Artificial Intelligence
AI is only as good as the data it is exposed to, which is
where certain challenges may present themselves.
How a business teaches and develops its AI will be the
major factor in its usefulness.
Another dilemma that comes along with AI is its potential
to replace human workers.
As machines become more “intelligent” they could begin to
replace experts in higher-level jobs.
 Treats and challenges …

Challenges in using Robotics in manufacturing

With automation and robotics moving from production
lines out into other areas of work and business, the
potential for humans losing jobs is great here too.
As automation technologies become more advanced, there
will be a greater capability for automation to take over
more and more complex jobs.
As robots learn to teach each other and themselves, there
is the potential for much greater productivity but this also
raises ethical and cyber-security concerns.
 Treats and challenges …
Challenges in using the Internet of Things
As more and more connected devices (such as smartwatches
and fitness trackers) join the Internet of Things (IoT) the amount
of data being generated is increasing.
Companies will have to plan carefully how this will affect the
customer-facing application and how to best utilize the masses
of data being produced.
There are also severe security implications of mass connectivity
that need to be addressed.
 Treats and challenges ….

Challenges in Big Data

Almost all the technologies mentioned above have some
relation
to Big Data.
The huge amount of data being generated on a daily basis has
the potential to provide businesses with better insight into their
customers as well as their own business operations.
Although data can be incredibly useful for spotting trends and
analyzing impacts, surfacing all this data to humans in a way
that
they can understand can be challenging.
AI will play a role here.
 Treats and challenges…
2. Treats
New and emerging technologies pose significant
opportunities for businesses if they utilize them well
and understand their true value early on.
They also pose risks and questions not only to
business but to society as a whole.
Planning for how to deal with these emerging technologies
and where value can be derived while assessing potential
risks before they become a fully-fledged reality is essential
for businesses that want to thrive in the world of AI, Big
Data and IoT.
 Treats …

Some risks of emerging technology are:

Driverless car: while a compelling option for future fleer
cars, companies could crash and burn from claims related
to bodily injury and property damage.
Wearable's: Google glass, Fitbit and other wearables can
expose companies to the invasion of privacy claims that
may not be covered by general liability or personal injury
claims that weren’t foreseen.
 Treats …

Drones: Turbulence is in the offing for manufacturers and

organizations that fail to protect themselves for property
damage and bodily injury, as well as errors and omissions.
Internet of things: The proliferation of sensors and cross-
platform integration creates potential exposure from
privacy invasion, bodily injury and property damage that
may connect an organization to huge liabilities.
Any Question?